An Auckland real estate agent is making the case that a tiny enclave sandwiched between the rich-lister suburbs of Herne Bay and Westmere should be officially recognised as a neighbourhood in its own right.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Carl Madsen told OneRoof he always thought the five streets and more than 200 houses that make up Coxs Bay were separate in identity from those in neighbouring suburbs.
Residents love the vibe of Coxs Bay and often bump into celebrities relaxing at the reserve, with Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi and his pop star wife Rita Ora, who live in nearby Point Chevalier, known to visit.
As he begins marketing a striking architect-designed concrete and timber house on Regina Street, in Coxs Bay, Madsen said the homeowners, who in the streets bordering Coxs Bay Reserve, which runs from West End Road through to Richmond Road, do not think of themselves as belonging to Westmere or Herne Bay or even Grey Lynn.
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“It’s only a small suburb – a very tightly held location. It’s a bit like St Marys Bay. The owners identify themselves strongly with Coxs Bay not the surrounding suburbs.”
It is helped by the fact that the park overlooks the water at Coxs Bay, which is edged by some of Auckland’s most expensive streets: Herne Bay’s Marine Parade and Westmere’s Rawene Avenue.
“There’s a certain vibrancy in Coxs Bay, it’s more connected with the vibe of Ponsonby. It’s a very eclectic mix of properties and that brings vibrancy,” Madsen said. “People talk about more of a sense of community.”
Madsen said the area has notably changed over the past 20 years as former state houses and modest 1950s brick and tile homes were replaced by very high-end contemporary houses that made the most of their parkside setting.
Rita Ora and Taika Waititi at the 2024 Met Gala in New York. The couple are known to hang out in Coxs Bay, in Auckland. Photo / Getty Images
The streets around Coxs Bay Reserve, shown here when it was a popular gathering place during the 2020 lockdown, have been transformed by high-end architecture. Photo / Michael Craig
OneRoof-Valocity data shows there have been 66 sales of properties located on the five Coxs Bay streets in the last five years to the end of April. The median price for the “suburb” over the last 12 months was $2.5 million (based on 11 sales), down from $3.32m during market peak, and there have been 14 sales.
The top sale price of $7.1m for Coxs Bay was in late 2020 for a five-bedroom Stevens Lawson-designed house with a pool, studio and gym on a 1200sqm site on Livingstone Street. It was one of 17 over-$3m sales in the past five years.
The current median sale price in Herne Bay and Westmere is $3.99m and $2.42m respectively.
Case in point is the striking three-bedroom concrete and timber house Madsen has just listed with wife Rosanne at 34 Regina Street that Madsen is selling by deadline sale closing on June 11.
Finished just 10 years ago, the house designed by Steven Lloyd Architecture, has featured in architecture magazines. Lloyd called it Hinaki as nods to both the long eel-pot shape of the building and the stream bank and foreshore of the original Coxs Bay on which it sits.
Long-time Barfoot & Thompson agents Carl and Rosanne Madsen say Coxs Bay residents do not think of themselves as part of Westmere or Grey Lynn. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The owners, who had worked with Lloyd on their former house in Grey Lynn, had briefed the architect to create a house with separated living space for their then-teenage daughter.
They loved California modernist architecture and told their architect they were ready to “be brave and try something new”.
Their search for land had taken almost three years before they found themselves the only bidders for the old house only a few streets from their old home.
“We just kept coming back to Coxs Bay, it’s a real sun-trap, there are water views, it’s central and quiet,” one of the owners told OneRoof.
“I think the neighbourhood hated the house initially,” but the steel gates and Japanese-style gardens she designed and planted with the help of one of the owners of Speciman Tree Company have helped settle the place into its landscape. She had Hikurangi rocks shipped down from near her family bach up north (it took a crane and a brigade of movers to shift them into place) to set the Japanese feel.
The Japanese-style native gardens around the pool and courtyards were designed by one of the owners. Photo / Supplied
She described the house as a “jewel box” where the plywood timber walls often disguise doors to hidden storage and the character of the poured concrete walls and structural steel are loved parts of the house.
“We thought, ‘Wow you really can do something elegant with this raw material’.”
Lloyd situated the entrance to the house in the middle of the property so guests walk past the front bedroom and living wing cantilevered over the carport to the heart of the home. At the centre of the home is the open-plan living and dining room and kitchen – some parts having single height until the dining room opens to double height – with one patio on the north and a terrace around the backyard pool, surrounded by the lush garden.
The owners said that the polished concrete floor and double glazing make the house warm in winter, while light from the double height ceilings, David Trubridge light shades and coloured glass planes add another layer. The kitchen, with its large island was a favourite with the couple, both keen cooks, while the dining room has hosted family dinners.
A staircase up to the elevated bridge walkway leads to the master suite and a roomy office.
The entry courtyard is at the side of the house. Photo / Supplied
The open-plan kitchen features a stainless steel island. Photo / Supplied
As well as magazine features, the house has also hosted visits from other architects, interested in how the house makes the most of the typical 538sqm inner-city site.
“Steven is very clever, the way he creates sight line. I’m sitting in my study and can look down into the living room. His eye for detail is very clever. I have lovely views across the bay and to the Sky Tower," one of the owners said.
“The house is quite compact and easy to live in,” she said, adding that the lively games of touch rugby on a Saturday have become part of the rhythm of the street. “We see the guys from the Naked Samoans playing - even Taika [Waititi] and Rita [Ora] turned up one day. I’ll miss that part of the old neighbourhood.”
- 34 Regina Street, Coxs Bay, will be sold by deadline sale closing June 11
